EDITORIAL, Dec. 3: H2GO-Belville deal no way to do the people’s business

Sunday

Dec 3, 2017 at 2:01 AM

Even if intentions were good, H2GO-Belville water deal leaves bad taste

StarNews Editorial Board

Who knew water could be so complicated?

The H2GO board surprised everyone except Belville officials by voting 3-2 on Tuesday to sell its assets to the town of Belville. That resolution was introduced by Carl Antos, sitting in his last regular meeting because voters rejected his re-election bid Nov. 7.

The next day, Belville’s Board of Commissioners voted to accept the transfer, and the Leland Town Council voted to battle it in court.

At stake is the future of a proposed $34 million reverse osmosis plant. We’ve said previously that we understood the reasons for building such a plant, given the fairly recent revelations about toxic chemicals in the Cape Fear River, the primary source of drinking water in our area.

But this deal, hatched behind closed doors, leads us to distrust both the H2GO board members who voted for it and the Belville commissioners who quickly accepted it.

The Belville board met at 8 a.m. Wednesday without notifying the media, a move made possible because they had recessed at the end of their Nov. 20 meeting rather than closing it.

Back in February, a StarNews editorial suggested that the H2GO board members await the outcome of the Nov. 7 election before committing more money to building the plant.

Since then, the three pro-plant commissioners have voted to approve millions of dollars in contracts for work on the plant, over the objections of two plant opponents on the board.

And sure enough, voters elected Bill Beer, who opposes the plant, giving opponents a 3-2 edge in future votes on its fate.

Voters also backed two plant supporters in that election, so it might seem hard to find a mandate in the results. But the strong 22.4 percent turnout suggests voters were energized when they chose Beer over plant-supporter Antos. Which makes it hard to understand why the lame-duck Antos led the board to effectively dissolve H2GO.

It’s certainly a slap in the face of voters.

H2GO’s executive director, Bob Walker, said he expects the transfer to take a few more days.

State Treasurer Dale Folwell, chairman of the Local Government Commission, said conveying H2GO’s debt to Belville will take months.The board has spent $6.1 million on the project already and awarded nearly $8 million in contracts this year.

It’s troubling that this resolution was drafted in secrecy -- board member Jeff Gerken said he hadn’t seen it before Tuesday’s meeting. Neither had Brunswick County Commissioners Chairman Frank Williams, who said he was “shocked” at the decision, adding, “The manner in which this transpired raises a number of serious concerns.”

Amen to that.

Chief among them is Belville’s role in all this.

Is Belville really ready to take on the responsibility for building an expensive water plant and operating a regional water system whose service extends far beyond its town limits?

Lately, Belville seems to be getting its act together. In September, it opened a sensible and attractive town hall after renting space for a decade. And its Riverwalk Park is a great success, showcasing the town’s lovely riverfront and providing a venue for public events.

But Belville is still mired in legal woes surrounding its aborted plan for a $300 million Mayfaire-like downtown. A legal showdown with the planning firm Urban Smart Growth looms.

Now Belville has joined in a secret move by a lame-duck H2GO board member to transfer millions of dollars in assets and liabilities from a public water and sewer authority to a municipality.

Suddenly the self-defeating longtime rivalry between Belville and Leland threatens to explode into another legal battle for Belville.

Are Belville residents really on board with this plan? Did H2GO and Belville follow the state’s Open Meetings Law as they negotiated this deal? Is this really the way residents want their government entities to do business?